A Queensland Parliamentary Committee considering proposed changes to the legislation to allow same-sex adoption today returned a verdict of ‘undecided’.

The Queensland Parliamentary Committee considering proposed amendments to adoption legislation has today returned a divided response in its report. After reviewing all the submissions, the committee was unable to reach a majority decision as to whether the Bill should be passed.

The Adoption and Other Amendment Bill 2016 proposes, among other things, changing legislation to enable the adoption of children by single parents and same-sex couples. According to the committee’s report “a significant number of submissions” were concerned entirely in opposing these aspects of the Bill, particularly adoption by same-sex couples.

Wendy Francis, ACL’s Queensland Director, attended the Committee’s inquiry last week and was quoted in the report. Our submission was based on ACL’s belief that men and women provide unique, complementary roles, both of which are important in the development of children.

“No matter how great a single-parent mother may be, she is not a father, and no matter how great a single parent father is, he is not a mother.”

Debate centred on what constituted the ‘best interests of the child’. It is recognised that children being offered for adoption have already suffered difficulty and loss and are therefore particularly vulnerable. The burden on the state to exercise its duty of care conservatively is therefore greater.

Given that there is no shortage of heterosexual couples waiting to adopt babies, and the government is burdened to act in the best interests of the child, ACL hopes that the Queensland Parliament will now decline this Bill.